How You See Me
by C.Queen
Summary: BGC Tokyo 2040 There was chemistry between Mackey and Nene from the day they met, but it's never been acted upon. Now that the world is safe will the mechanic win the hacker of his dreams or will his past and their differences keep them apart?


Disclaimer: As always I own nothing but the original characters and the situations I've put all the characters in. Thanks ever so much for reading and please review because I'd love to hear from you!

What I'm Not

Reaching for the rag he'd stuffed in his back pocket Mackey pulled it out and began wiping the oil off his hands. Not all of it came off but at least he wouldn't make too much of a mess when he washed up later, Mackey thought, not wanting to think about what their family butler would do to him if he got the bathroom towels and sink all gucky again. He hadn't done it on purpose of course but he always felt guilty when the older man gave him that look. Turning his head Mackey saw that Nigel was still hard at work on Priss's bike, a regular thing thanks to the way Priss was always pushing it to its limits. Though no one said it everyone was hoping Nigel took as long as possible with the repairs for the sake of the other drivers on the road. Calling Priss's driving aggressive was an understatement. Smiling at the thought he turned to look at what he'd been working at and the smile quickly faded away. Nene's suit. It had been badly damaged during the last mission and her along with it. If a heart could stop beating out of fear than his had when he'd realized she wasn't getting up. If you could call what beat in his chest a heart. Placing his hand over the spot where it should be he could feel it but was it a heart or just another of their father's inventions designed to replicate? The same could be said about his whole body. He wasn't a human being, he wasn't a machine. Basically he was a wasn't.

"You all right?" Nigel called out after taking a swig from his flask. The kid was out of it and he knew that look in those eyes that were so like Sylia's. Mackey was in one of his what am I moods. Problem was, nothing anyone had to say on the matter seemed to stick unless it was negative.

"Yeah..I'm fine." Working up a smile Mackey quickly went back to work, knowing that Nigel wouldn't ask but would worry enough to mention something to Sylia if he wasn't careful. The last thing he wanted was his sister worrying about him. She'd already suffered so much because of him. He knew that it wasn't his fault, that he hadn't asked for her to suffer so that he might live, but the bottom line remained. He'd been created out of her pain and suffering at the hands of their father.

* * *

They worked in silence for another two hours, Mackey's concentration focused solely on making Nene's suit as perfect as he could possibly make it. There could be no mistakes because a mistake might mean Nene's life. He'd sooner end his own. That was probably why Nigel had put him in charge of fixing this suit in the first place. Everyone knew how he felt about Nene after all. Even Nene. How she felt about him was a mystery though. He knew she'd cried at the thought of him ending his life, but he'd imagine she'd do the same at the thought of losing any of her friends. It was selfish and small, but he wanted to matter to her most of all. Not that was likely to ever happen. No matter how old he was inside he would always be young on the outside in all likelihood. He'd never be a human man with the chance, the right to be with someone like Nene. She said that she didn't care what he was, but that didn't mean she'd find the idea of being with him, of being more than a friend to him at all appealing. Looking down at his hands he blinked when he saw what time it was. He'd missed dinner again. Sylia's going to be pissed, Mackey thought with a dejected sigh, not looking forward to going upstairs now at all. She'd eat then bring him the cold leftover to make her point. Slumping forward he could only hope that whatever she was bringing would taste okay cold. "We missed dinner again." He informed Nigel who winced slightly before going back to his work. Sylia had been trying to get Nigel to eat with them recently and the results so far had not been good. He didn't know why Sylia didn't just tell Nigel that she loved him, why couldn't they be a couple? They were both healthy human beings who got along relatively well and as Priss said, they had big time chemistry. To him, who would give anything to be able to say the same, it was a terrible waste.

"Go on up, I'm almost done here." Looking over the machine Nigel smirked slightly at the boy's expression. The kid knew when he was being used to deflect Sylia's anger. Smart kid.

* * *

"Yes, sir." Wiping his hands as clean as he could get them after putting away his tools Mackey headed up to the main floor, stopping in his room to change and clean up before he hurried into the dining room to find Sylia calmly sipping away at her after dinner wine and a piece of apple pie.

"We lost track of time. I'm really sorry, Sylia." Bowing his head Mackey braced just in case she was in a bad mood. She'd been waiting for a call from someone all day and as far as he knew that call had never come. Standing up Sylia Stingray was never a good idea.

"Your dinner is in the fridge."

Wincing at the icy tone he looked up to see she was busy pretending like she found her pie slice fascinating. Oh yeah, she had obviously not had a good day. "Thanks, I'll make it up to you and I won't miss tomorrow, I promise." He'd find someway if he had to bribe someone to come and remind him. After giving one more quick bow he hurried out of the room and headed for the kitchen just as Henderson came out holding a tray with a sandwich and glass of milk. "Sorry." Mackey said sheepishly, knowing who the tray was for before Henderson had even held it out to him. "I promise I won't miss again. At least this week." Promising anymore would be a lie because he knew himself too well to think he wouldn't do this again.

"See that you don't." Was all Henderson said though his tone of voice said a hell of a lot more.

Taking the tray Mackey nodded then made a hasty retreat back to his room before anyone else could have him bowing and apologizing for something he hadn't done on purpose. Wolfing the sandwich down at his desk he quickly finished the milk as well. Putting the glass and plate back on the tray he returned both to the kitchen before exiting with the intention of going back to his room to look over some schematics he'd been working on. He hadn't gotten far though before his phone began to ring. Pulling it out of his pocket he raised an eyebrow when he saw that it was Priss calling. Why would she be calling him? "Uhm, hello?"

* * *

"Are you busy?" Priss asked abruptly, not even bothering with a hello or it's Priss. He had caller display, he knew who was calling.

"Uhm no, why?" This was just getting weirder and weirder.

"It's Nene. I promised to give her a ride home but my damn drummer had to go and have an allergic reaction to something we had for dinner. I'm at the hospital with him and he's whining like a baby that he's going to die and won't let me leave. Can you go pick her up? I don't want her taking a cab in the condition she's in and Linna doesn't have the right sort of transportation. So can you do it?"

"I guess so but-" He never got a chance to say anything else as she said a quick thanks and promptly hung up. Priss really needed to work on her people skills. Staring at the phone Mackey felt like he'd been whacked upside the head when he realized what he'd just volunteered to go do. He could drive any of Sylia's cars, he had a license that said he was old enough. Not that that piece of plastic had his correct age on it but then none of his few pieces of identification did. The whole driving thing wasn't the problem. The problem was who he'd be picking up. Nene probably wouldn't like the idea either. Even now that she knew the truth she still treated him like a kid a lot of the time, even though in truth he was older than she was. He just didn't look it. Sighing he considered seeing if Nigel or Sylia would go instead but Nigel was working and he wasn't in Sylia's good books at the moment. Damn...he was going to have to go. Looking at his watch he winced again. And he was going to have to hurry.

* * *

Practically running down the hallway he could only pray that he was going the right way twenty minutes later. That detective hadn't known a damn thing about giving good directions, Mackey thought in frustration. Spotting Priss's sorta boyfriend Leon Mackey gave a sigh of relief as he hurried over to the AD detective. "Leon. Where would I find Nene? I'm giving her a ride home and I don't want to miss her since she's expecting Priss."

"Hey, kid." Raising a hand in greeting Leon said good bye to the officers he'd been talking with to show the kid the way since it was rather confusing. He couldn't say that any of them were particularly fond of the new building for their department but what could they do since their old building had pretty much been destroyed by all those damn Boomers six months ago. Now they were in a new building and were still working on convincing the officials that since Boomers were being brought in to repair the city the AD Police would still be needed. Only a few had gone rouge in the past few months and the Sabers had gotten all of those. Having a girlfriend who was one of them meant he couldn't even really bitch about them showing up anymore. Yeah, it was tough having to let your woman fight the battles, he thought wearily. Mackey had to go through that twice as bad, Leon thought, looking over at the kid. He always thought of Mackey as a kid even though he wasn't entirely sure how old the guy was. He looked like he was in his teens but knowing the story of Mackey's past he knew just how deceiving those looks actually were.

"Thanks for doing this." Mackey said as he tried to make his strides longer to make it easier to keep up with the cop. Unfortunately he wasn't getting any taller, he thought with a sigh.

"Hey, no problem. So how come Priss couldn't make it?" He could only hope that his girlfriend hadn't crashed that damn bike of hers into something again. Last time he'd checked it was with Nigel where it could stay for a very long time as far as he was concerned.

"Her drummer got sick and she had to take him to the hospital."

"I'll give her a call and see what's what." He knew how important her band members were to her, since they seemed to be the only family she had besides the Knight Sabers crew and himself. "Here we are and five minutes before shift ends. Just wait here and she'll come through eventually."

* * *

Waving off Mackey's thanks Leon headed back down the hallway to find his partner while Mackey leaned against the wall to wait. He only had to wait about seven minutes, in which time three people had come up to him to ask if he was lost, treating him like a lost child which he just barely tolerated. He was fairly easy going but the idea of Nene coming in while they talked to him like that made his stomach turn. He had enough points against him already. When she came out, looking exhausted and walking with a slight limp he felt it like a blow to the stomach. He didn't like to see her being anything other than happy and bursting energy. Pushing aside his thoughts and the words of concern he knew she didn't want to hear he stepped forward. "Nene?"

"Mackey!" Shock and surprise crossing her face she barely managed not to jump. "What are you doing here?"

"Uhm..Priss couldn't come so she asked me to. I borrowed one of Sylia's cars. I hope that's okay." God but she made him want to shuffle his feet and blush like a school boy, Mackey thought in dismay, already feeling his cheeks go warm. It was no wonder she treated him like a kid when he acted like one around her, he thought in disgust.

"Oh well..." Not sure what to say Nene wanted to say no but that would be really rude, especially since Mackey had come all this way to drive her home. She had insisted she was perfectly up to getting home by herself but Linna and Priss had insisted. Apparently they hadn't wanted it bad enough to do the driving themselves, Nene thought darkly. Seeing how uncomfortable he was Nene felt a fine blush cross her own cheeks. He was just so cute. "Yeah, sure, that would be great." Forcing a wide smile she hoped he couldn't see how the idea of having him drive her home was freaking her out.

Both doing their best not to look at each other they headed out, ignoring all the curious looks they were getting as Nene called out her good nights and pretended she didn't know what they were all thinking and wondering. Who was the boy and what was he to her? If they'd asked, she wouldn't have been able to truthfully answer that second one, at least not with him in the room.

* * *

Once they were on the sidewalk and walking towards where they'd parked the car Mackey looked over at Nene, his hands in his pockets. "I'm sorry I embarrassed you back there."

"Huh? What?"

"Because I look so young. They must have all thought it was really weird that some kid came to pick you up. They'll probably raz you about it and stuff." His fingers clenching and unclenching against his thighs he looked over at her hastily. "I know you'd rather have Priss drive you home, Nene."

"I don't care what they think and I'm glad you came to pick me up." Her cheeks going from pink to red Nene did her best not to fidget. She just always got so nervous around him, ever since they'd defeated Galatea and she'd realized that she was falling in love with the baby faced mechanic who wasn't even entirely human. They just never seemed to know how to act or talk around each other anymore. Whenever he got too close she got nervous and did or said something stupid that had him backing off. Not that he was much better, Nene added mentally, looking back at him. "Besides, I'm sure you had something better to do then chauffeur me around. If anyone should feel put upon it's you."

"Oh no! There's nothing I'd rather do!" Going as red as Nene at his declaration they both lapsed into awkward silence, Mackey having to clear his throat before he could speak as he pointed to the car. "That's it."

"It's really nice. I bet it gets quite a work out on these damaged roads." The Dragon Line certainly had done as much damage as the mystical creature it was named for, Nene thought, hoping the ride wasn't too bumpy. She was sore enough as it was. Quickly getting into the car Nene had her seat belt on before he could even climb into the driver's seat. The sooner they got there the sooner she could kick herself for being such an idiot around him.

"You'll have to give me directions, since I've never been to your place before." Mackey said quietly as he turned the engine on, it roaring to life instantly thanks to Nigel's special care. Mackey doubted there was anything that Nigel couldn't fix and have working like new no matter how old it was.

"No problem."

* * *

It took them only seven minutes to get to her place but it seemed to last forever as they only spoke when directions were needed. You'd think they were beyond this, Mackey wanted to say. She'd been so happy when he'd recovered from his near death at the hands of his little sister, Galatea. Everyone had told him how upset she'd been when he'd been incapacitated, possibly never to recover after saving them. But nothing had really changed between them and within weeks she'd been back to treating him like a kid again. He knew she had feelings for him but were they as deep as his? He'd never been able to tell her that it had been his love for her that had given him the strength to hold out again Galatea for as long as he had. That it had been his determination to return to her as much as to Sylia that had given him the strength to hang on and live. And that was the big problem, Mackey thought to himself as he stared straight ahead at the road in front of them. Neither of them seemed to be able to express what they only seemed to be able to show through actions and body language. He was such a coward, everyone else was so much stronger and braver than he was. He'd criticized Nigel for not bringing his relationship with Sylia into the open and really make something out of it but when you got down to it even Nigel was better than he was when it came to relationships. At least he and Sylia had one. Not that he wanted to think about that. Ever.

"Here we are." Nene said cheerfully, doing her best to act like she wasn't nervous and unsure of what to do now. Should she say good bye or should she ask him up for a drink or something? She would have asked Priss but Mackey was definitely not Priss in too many ways to count. And she was being such a coward, Nene thought in disgust, speaking before she could think better of it. "Do you want to come up for a drink or something?"

"Really?" So surprised Mackey said the first thing that came into his head. "Sure, I'd love to."


End file.
